We're back! (And we're 9 months old!)

I apologize for the silence. Matthewsaurus and I took a spontaneous trip to Chicagoland last week to see my best friend and her family. She and I had talked on the phone about a week prior and we were both missing each other terribly. Then I remembered that we had a frequent flyer ticket that we had never used (thank you, South.west Airlines!) so I called and reactivated it, and a week later, we were on our way. Matthew did wonderfully on the plane ride out. He LOVED being in a house with other kids. The 5 of us (my friend and I and our combined 3 kids) just had fun doing life together-going for walks, taking the kids to the park, going shopping, etc. It was lovely!

I have no pictures to share from my trip because I unfortunately left my camera there. But having left it there is better than the fate I originally thought had befallen my camera--I thought I had lost it in the airport. So anyway, the camera is now in the mail to me and I'm anxious for it to arrive. I was SO grateful when Kim called to say they'd found it.

Sidetrack: Normally, as the first picture of every memory card, I take a photo of a piece of paper that includes my name and contact info so that if some Samaritan DOES find my camera, they can contact me to get the camera back to me. I hadn't yet done that with this camera, but I'm throwing it out there in case anyone else thinks it's a good idea. Todd once found a video camera in a used car we bought at the auction. On the camera was video of what was obviously, a child's first birthday. We felt so badly for them that they didn't have that video and we had no way of knowing who they were to get it back to them. So I usually try to ensure that there's a way someone can find me, if they want to.

Matthew turned 9 months old the day we left:


He's started crawling "for real." He moved a few inches before we left on our trip, so daddy got to see the first crawling. Then while at Kim's house, he took off across the room! Life will never be the same. We've ordered a baby cage gate so that we can try to contain the madness, but now there's nowhere he doesn't want to go. It was funny to arrive home and leave him in DH's care. DH turned to leave the room momentarily, and Matthew followed him. That surprised him as he hadn't yet connected the dots to all crawling entails now! Today I took Matthew to get his pictures taken, and there was another little boy his same age getting HIS photo taken. Matthew wanted to play with him, so he just crawled on over and did.

For my mama records: he still teeters right around 18-18.25 pounds. He wears size 2 diapers. He eats 1-2 meals of solids per day and loves it. Most of the time, he wears 9-12 month clothing because he's so long. A few of his 6-9month things do still fit him.  His 9 month pediatrician visit is tomorrow so I am anxious to see what his "official" stats are. UPDATE: Her official stats: Weight: 18lb, 6 oz (14th percentile). Length: 29.75" (90th percentile). Head circumference: 18" (50th percentile).

Loves: Chicken. Being around a baby 5 months older than him for a week made him anxious to do big-boy things, including eat like one. He previously wouldn't eat anything but purees and despised anything with texture, but he wanted to feed himself like Kim's daughter does. So, he had some plain shredded chicken for the first time. He went positively nuts for it. Double-fisted, shoveling it in to his mouth, moaning in delight all the while. It was HILARIOUS. I have it on video too...on the traveling camera. He loves bath-time in the "big boy" bath tub. He loves other kids and babies. He loves the baby in the mirror, and crawling, and singing. And he love love LOVES the outside, still. It's finally cool enough that we can be in it and daddy is growing some grass for us, so we're loving fall.

Working On: Cruising, climbing. (Oh, my!)

Dislikes: Peas (awesome!). Being still. His very first toy that we bought when I was still pregnant. He is terrified of it! It's so pitiful.

Disposition: Happy. Hammy. Impatient. Strong-willed. Stubborn. Wonderful combination ;)



As you know, yesterday was Halloween. We're still trying to figure out how we want to acknowledge various holidays in our home and in Matthew's life. We don't really do Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, but we don't think there's anything wrong with gift exchanges, and egg-hunts. We like costumes and pumpkins, but we don't do scary or evil or ghoulish and we're not sure that we're fans of trick or treating. We want our focus to always be on Christ, and for holidays created to commemorate specific things in Christian history to be celebrated accordingly,  but we also think God can be glorified in harvest festivals and Christmas stockings, too. It's been easy enough to live through as two adults, but trying to actually ARTICULATE things, especially going forward where it will have to be in such a way that a child can understand, has been a little more tricky. A friend shared this blog post with me, and it articulated many of our thoughts PERFECTLY, and gave us a few more things to chew on. In the end, he had a costume (a dinosaur-monster--Matthewsaurus!). We went over to Krista's house and had dinner with friends and family. We pushed Matthew in the stroller while her kids trick or treated and I steered Matthew away from any scary or gory decorations. We just enjoyed quality time and clean fun with people beloved to us- I think God is honored in that.





Love love LOVE this picture of some of my favorite kiddos in the world.




Skyler informed us he was "babysitting" Matthew.





And today I took him to get his 9 month portrait taken. She got several good ones. I love his little laugh in this one:


Off to get a little more work done before he wakes from his nap. He fell asleep in his carseat on the way home and is still asleep now, 2 hours later. I wonder if he's working on another tooth in there. We'll see.

Toodaloo!